Fortunately, Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Ted Lieu have now introduced legislation – the Restricting the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act – that would limit Trump’s ability to launch nuclear weapons without an act of Congress.

Now isn't that special! Two Democrats, in a House full of Republicans (oh and don't forget what a great party they are in the state legislatures!), are going to save us from immediate threats of nuclear war. With legislative proposals!

Meanwhile on Facebook Jeffrey St. Clair reminds us:

Let's not forget that it was the Peace Prize Prez who armed Trump with a new generation of "Fire and Fury" nuclear weapons...

Can you see at this point why I'm uninterested in electoral politics? I've been posting all of these links for your amusement, really, because here's the scoop: it's not as if the Democrats are "cowardly" or "money-hungry" or "centrist" or "crazy" or whatever else they've been called here at C99%. Rather, it's that there is an opposition in American politics at the Federal level in the most fake, public-relations sense. The Democrats are in fact Republicans with different stylistic programming. If they "stop Trump," they'll do so because they want President Pence or something a bit more relaxed.

If nothing so far qualifies, I hate to imagine what would be horrific enough to get Joe Average to act...

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"The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party in the way that manslaughter is slightly better than murder: It might seem like a lesser crime, but the victim can’t really tell the difference." -- Michael Harriot

If there was one such party, I feel fairly certain that we could be assured that votes for it would not be counted... but I do think that Bernie could do it, or at least, despite everything, win a fair election (should one be possible) in order to help from there in informing and mobilizing the population, which, as Bernie has always said, is where the impetus for change must come. In a united groundswell for democracy and survival, within a civilized community.

#2.1 what sort of non-Demopublican, non-Republicrat political party would be sufficient to get Joe Average to act.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

I think the blues are always feeling guilty and being careful to choose exactly the right words so as not to give offense, while the reds are more in your face and seem incapable of feeling guilt. At least that seems to be the case on message boards.

writes up a keenly perceptive analysis of the post Cold War era, in relation to Trump and the three Presidents just prior to Trump. Excerpts from his lengthy essay:

The three presidents of the post-Cold-War era — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama — put these several propositions to the test. Politics-as-theater requires us to pretend that our 42nd, 43rd, and 44th presidents differed in fundamental ways. In practice, however, their similarities greatly outweighed any of those differences. Taken together, the administrations over which they presided collaborated in pursuing a common agenda, each intent on proving that the post-Cold-War consensus could work in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary....

...The emphasis on diversity and multiculturalism improved the status of groups long subjected to discrimination. Yet these advances have done remarkably little to reduce the alienation and despair pervading a society suffering from epidemics of chronic substance abuse, morbid obesity, teen suicide, and similar afflictions. Throw in the world’s highest incarceration rate, a seemingly endless appetite for porn, urban school systems mired in permanent crisis, and mass shootings that occur with metronomic regularity, and what you have is something other than the profile of a healthy society.

writes up a keenly perceptive analysis of the post Cold War era, in relation to Trump and the three Presidents just prior to Trump. Excerpts from his lengthy essay:

The three presidents of the post-Cold-War era — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama — put these several propositions to the test. Politics-as-theater requires us to pretend that our 42nd, 43rd, and 44th presidents differed in fundamental ways. In practice, however, their similarities greatly outweighed any of those differences. Taken together, the administrations over which they presided collaborated in pursuing a common agenda, each intent on proving that the post-Cold-War consensus could work in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary....

...The emphasis on diversity and multiculturalism improved the status of groups long subjected to discrimination. Yet these advances have done remarkably little to reduce the alienation and despair pervading a society suffering from epidemics of chronic substance abuse, morbid obesity, teen suicide, and similar afflictions. Throw in the world’s highest incarceration rate, a seemingly endless appetite for porn, urban school systems mired in permanent crisis, and mass shootings that occur with metronomic regularity, and what you have is something other than the profile of a healthy society.